My aunt visited my native for a family occasion. She left her son in my home as he had his classes. He went to school from my home, I packed lunch and snacks for him.
He is fond of cakes and pizzas and wished to bake one on his own. With no prior experience, he wished to bake a simple large cake. I suggested that he can start by baking cupcakes but from his point of view, he considers cooking cupcakes doesn’t fall under the category of baking which was funny indeed.
I suggested him to bake something chocolaty but finally concluded on this cake recipe from Divya’s space as it is mentioned as easy peasy. He baked it as per the instructions and was thrilled to see the transformation from batter to spongy texture through the oven glass door. 🙂
The top of the cake turned brown quickly, so I reduced the temperature to 150C and baked it for an hour. You an either cover it using aluminum foil in the middle and bake it in the usual temperature to avoid burning.
I personally felt the cake was a bit dry and had a cracked top while baking. The sweetness of the cake is bit less. But you can make it more sweet if needed. The color was very pleasant if you add vanilla flavored custard powder. If you use, corn flour, add some food coloring, otherwise you’ll end up having a white cake.
We got nine slices out of the cake but managed to get only 2 slices for the shoot and the recipe is presented below for your treat.
Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 45 minutes
Makes: 9 slices
Ingredients:
All purpose flour / Maida – 1 and 1/2 cups
Vanilla Flavored Custard powder or Corn flour – 3/4 cup
Baking powder – 2 and 1/4 teaspoons
Granulated sugar – 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon
Butter – 10 tablespoons, at room temperature
Milk – 1 cup
Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Grease a square or round pan with butter and dust it with flour. Keep aside.
2) In a mixing bowl, mix both butter and milk.
3) Add sugar and vanilla extract. Continue mixing till the sugar dissolves.
4) Add all the dry ingredients (all purpose flour, custard powder and baking powder) and mix until everything is incorporated.
5) Pour this batter to the prepared baking pan and bake it in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the tooth pin inserted into it comes out clean.
6) Once done, cool it for few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to allow it to cool down completely.
Notes:
1) I reduced the oven temperature to 150 half way after noticing the top part of the cake started changing the color.
2) Increase the vanilla extract quantity to 2 teaspoons if you use corn flour.
3) Corn flour/corn starch texture would resemble a talcum powder. It is totally different from the corn meal available in the market.
4) Depending on the baking pan size and the oven temperature the baking time varies. Ideally, it would be 45 minutes to 1 hour.